RFC 7102

Terms Used in Routing for Low-Power and Lossy Networks

📅 published January 2014, from ietf

RFC 7102 💖 Terms Used in Routing for Low-Power and Lossy Networks

Part 1 of 2 🦋

Bestie, here are the deets 💅

  • RFC number: 7102
  • Title: Terms Used in Routing for Low-Power and Lossy Networks
  • Author: JP. Vasseur, Cisco Systems, Inc.
  • Category: Informational
  • Date: January 2014
  • ISSN: 2070-1721
  • Obsoletes / Updates: nothing. The header has no Obsoletes or Updates line, so this one doesn't replace or patch anything 🙈

Abstract ✨

Okay so this doc is basically a glossary 📖 of the words people use when they talk about routing for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs). An LLN is usually a big pile of tiny embedded devices with limited power, memory, and processing, all linked together by a mix of different links. The use cases are everywhere 🌈: industrial monitoring, building automation (e.g., heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, access control, fire), connected home, health care, environmental monitoring, urban sensor networks, energy management, assets tracking, and refrigeration. It's giving variety 💜

Status of This Memo 🎀

Quick vibe check: this is not an Internet Standards Track specification. It's published just for information 🧚

This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 🌸. It represents the consensus of the IETF community, received public review, and got approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not every doc the IESG approves is a candidate for any level of Internet Standard, so check out Section 2 of RFC 5741 for the details 👑

Want the current status, any errata, or a way to send feedback? Head to http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7102 ✨

Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. 🫶

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) as in effect on the date of publication. Please read these carefully, because they spell out your rights and restrictions for this document 📜

Code Components pulled from this document have to include the Simplified BSD License text, as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions. They're provided without warranty, as described in the Simplified BSD License ⚠️

Table of Contents 🍓

1. Introduction ....................................................2
2. Terminology .....................................................3
3. Security Considerations .........................................7
4. Acknowledgements ................................................7
5. Informative References ..........................................7

1. Introduction ✨

Okay so this doc gives you a glossary of the terms used in routing requirements and solutions for LLNs 💅

LLNs are usually made of loads of embedded devices with limited power, memory, and processing, hooked up through all kinds of links, such as IEEE 802.15.4 or low-power Wi-Fi 📡. The application areas are wide: industrial monitoring, building automation (heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, access control, fire), connected home, health care, environmental monitoring, urban sensor networks, energy management, assets tracking, and refrigeration 🌸

Here's the tea 🍵: these applications are super specific (industrial automation, building automation, and so on), so it's super common for different people to use totally different words for the same device or function. To avoid confusion and mismatches, this doc sets the common terminology that all ROLL working group documents should use 🦋 The terms defined here are used in [RFC5548], [RFC5673], [RFC5826], and [RFC5867] 💖

Application-specific terminology is out of scope for this doc, so that stuff lives somewhere else 🙈

Honestly the big takeaway is this: every routing doc that defines requirements or specifies solutions for LLNs is expected to use the common terminology from here. This doc should be listed as an informative reference 🫶

2. Terminology ✨

okay bestie, this is the glossary section and it's giving dictionary energy 📖💖 every term that shows up later in the doc gets defined here so we're all on the same page. no cap, the definitions are where the vibe gets real 💅

  • Actuator: a field device that controls a set of equipment 🔧 like, an actuator might control and/or modulate the flow of a gas or liquid, control electricity distribution, perform a mechanical operation, etc.
  • AMI: Advanced Metering Infrastructure 📊 it makes use of Smart Grid technologies, and a canonical Smart Grid application is smart-metering ⚡
  • Channel: a radio frequency sub-band used to transmit a modulated signal carrying packets 📡
  • Channel Hopping: a procedure where field devices synchronously change channels during operation 🦋 the synchronized part is everything
  • Commissioning Tool: any physical or logical device temporarily added to the network for the express purpose of setting up the network and device operational parameters 🛠️ the commissioning tool can also be temporarily added to the LLN for scheduled or unscheduled maintenance, so it's a main character for setup and upkeep 💅
  • Closed Loop Control: a procedure where a device controller controls an actuator based on input information sensed by one or more field devices 🔁
  • Controller: a field device that can receive sensor input and automatically change the environment in the facility by manipulating digital or analog actuators 🎛️ it's the one making the moves
  • DA: Distribution Automation 🏘️ part of Smart Grid, and it encompasses technologies for maintenance and management of electrical distribution systems
  • DAG: Directed Acyclic Graph 🌳 a directed graph with no directed cycles (a graph formed by a collection of vertices and directed edges where each edge connects one vertex to another, such that there is no way to start at some vertex v and follow a sequence of edges that eventually loops back to vertex v again). iykyk, no loops allowed, obsessed 🙈
  • Data sink: a device that collects data from nodes in an LLN 🗑️ well, the good kind of trash 🧺
  • Downstream: data direction traveling from outside of the LLN (e.g., traffic coming from a LAN, WAN, or the Internet) via an LLN Border Router (LBR), or in general, "deeper" in the Directed Acyclic Graph computed by the routing protocol 🌊 think of it as flowing down into the network
  • Field Device: a field device is a physical device placed in the network's operating environment (e.g., plant, urban area, or home) 🏭🏡 field devices include sensors and actuators as well as routers and Low-Power and Lossy Network Border Routers (LBRs). a field device is usually (but not always) a device with constrained CPU, memory footprint, storage capacity, bandwidth, and sometimes power (battery operated) 🔋 at the time of writing, for the sake of illustration, a typical sensor or actuator would have a few Kilobytes of RAM, a few dozens of Kilobytes of ROM/Flash memory, a 8-/16-/32-bit microcontroller, and communication capabilities ranging from a few kbits/s to a few hundred kbits/s. continuous improvement of hardware and software is expected, but these devices will likely keep being seen as resource-constrained compared to the computers and routers used in the rest of the Internet 🥹 small but mighty
  • Flash Memory: non-volatile memory that can be re-programmed 💾
  • FMS: Facility Management System 🏢 a global term applied across all the vertical designations within a building, including heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (also referred to as HVAC), fire, security, lighting, and elevator control 🛗
  • HART: Highway Addressable Remote Transducer 📘 a group of specifications for industrial process and control devices administered by the HART Foundation (see [HART]). the latest version of the specifications is HART7, which includes the additions for WirelessHART 📶
  • HVAC: Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning 🌡️ a term applied to mechanisms used to maintain the comfort level of an internal space 😌
  • ISA: International Society of Automation 🏛️ an ANSI accredited standards-making society. ISA100 is an ISA committee whose charter includes defining a family of standards for industrial automation. [ISA100.11a] is a working group within ISA100 that is working on a standard for monitoring and non-critical process-control applications 🤝
  • LAN: Local Area Network 🏠
  • LBR: Low-Power and Lossy Network Border Router 🚪 a device that connects the Low-Power and Lossy Network to another routing domain such as a LAN, a WAN, or the Internet, where a different routing protocol may be in operation. the LBR acts as a routing device and may possibly host other functions such as data collector or aggregator 🧚
  • LLN: Low-Power and Lossy Network 🌸 typically composed of many embedded devices with limited power, memory, and processing resources, interconnected by a variety of links, such as IEEE 802.15.4 or low-power Wi-Fi. there is a wide scope of application areas for LLNs, including industrial monitoring, building automation (HVAC, lighting, access control, fire), connected home, health care, environmental monitoring, urban sensor networks, energy management, assets tracking, and refrigeration 🌈 so many vibes
  • MP2P: Multipoint-to-Point 🫧 used to describe a particular traffic pattern (e.g., MP2P flows collecting information from many nodes flowing upstream towards a collecting sink or an LBR) 🐝 many nodes, one destination, very team-player
  • MAC: Medium Access Control 🚦 refers to algorithms and procedures used by the data link layer to coordinate use of the physical layer
  • Non-Sleepy Node: a node that always remains in a fully powered-on state (i.e., always awake) where it has the capability to perform communication ☀️ never naps, ever
  • Open Loop Control: a process where a plant operator manually manipulates an actuator over the network, where the decision is influenced by information sensed by field devices 🕹️ a human is in the driver's seat here
  • PER: Packet Error Rate 📉 a ratio of the number of unusable packets (not received at all or received in error, even after any applicable error correction has been applied) to the total number of packets that would have been received in the absence of errors
  • P2P: Point To Point 👯 refers to traffic exchanged between two nodes (regardless of the number of hops between the two nodes) 🫶
  • P2MP: Point-to-Multipoint 📣 refers to traffic between one node and a set of nodes. this is similar to the P2MP concept in Multicast or MPLS Traffic Engineering ([RFC4461]and [RFC4875]). a common use case for the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) involves P2MP flows from or through a DAG root outward towards other nodes contained in the DAG 🌟 one-to-many, it's giving broadcast queen
  • RAM: Random Access Memory 🧠 a volatile memory, so it forgets when the power goes 🫠
  • RFID: Radio Frequency IDentification 🏷️
  • ROM: Read-Only Memory 📀
  • ROLL: Routing Over Low-Power and Lossy Networks 🛣️
  • RPL: An IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks 🌿 it provides a mechanism whereby multipoint-to-point traffic from devices inside the LLN towards a central control point, as well as point-to-multipoint traffic from the central control point to the devices inside the LLN, are supported. RPL also supports point-to-point traffic between any arbitrary nodes in the LLN 🧩 it does it all
  • RPL Domain: a collection of RPL routers under the control of a single administration 🏰 the boundaries of routing domains are defined by network management by setting some links to be exterior, or inter-domain, links 🚧
  • Schedule: an agreed execution, wake-up, transmission, reception, etc., timetable between two or more field devices 📅 everyone shows up at the same time, no ghosting
  • Sensor: a device that measures a physical quantity and converts it to an analog or digital signal that can be read by a program or a user 🌡️ sensed data can be of many types: electromagnetic (e.g., current, voltage, power, or resistance), mechanical (e.g., pressure, flow, liquid density, or humidity), chemical (e.g., oxygen or carbon monoxide), acoustic (e.g., noise or ultrasound), etc. 👀 it notices everything
  • Sleepy Node: a node that may sometimes go into a sleep mode (i.e., go into a low-power state to conserve power) and temporarily suspend protocol communication. when not in sleep mode, the sleepy node is in a fully powered-on state where it has the capability to perform communication 😴 naps are allowed, and it's valid
  • Smart Grid: a broad class of applications to network and automate utility infrastructure ⚡💫
  • Timeslot: a fixed time interval that may be used for the transmission or reception of a packet between two field devices. a timeslot used for communications is associated with a slotted-link ⏰
  • Upstream: data direction traveling from the LLN via the LBR to outside of the LLN (LAN, WAN, or Internet) or generally closer to the root of the DAG computed by the routing protocol ⬆️ the opposite of Downstream, obviously
  • WAN: Wide Area Network 🌍

3. Security Considerations 🔐

okay so this section is short and sweet 🍓 since this document specifies terminology and does not specify new procedures or protocols, it raises no new security issues. no new procedures means no new attack surface from this doc itself 💖

4. Acknowledgements 🫶

the authors would like to thank Christian Jacquenet, Tim Winter, Pieter De Mil, David Meyer, Mukul Goyal, and Abdussalam Baryun for their valuable feedback. bestie squad shoutout 📣💜

5. Informative References 📚

[HART]    HART Communication Foundation, <http://www.hartcomm.org>.

[ISA100.11a]
          ISA, "Wireless systems for industrial automation: Process
          control and related applications", ISA 100.11a, May 2008,
          <http://www.isa.org/Community/
          SP100WirelessSystemsforAutomation>.

[RFC4461] Yasukawa, S., Ed., "Signaling Requirements for Point-to-
          Multipoint Traffic-Engineered MPLS Label Switched Paths
          (LSPs)", RFC 4461, April 2006.

[RFC4875] Aggarwal, R., Ed., Papadimitriou, D., Ed., and S. Yasukawa,
          Ed., "Extensions to Resource Reservation Protocol - Traffic
          Engineering (RSVP-TE) for Point-to-Multipoint TE Label
          Switched Paths (LSPs)", RFC 4875, May 2007.

[RFC5548] Dohler, M., Ed., Watteyne, T., Ed., Winter, T., Ed., and D.
          Barthel, Ed., "Routing Requirements for Urban Low-Power and
          Lossy Networks", RFC 5548, May 2009.

[RFC5673] Pister, K., Ed., Thubert, P., Ed., Dwars, S., and T.
          Phinney, "Industrial Routing Requirements in Low-Power and
          Lossy Networks", RFC 5673, October 2009.

[RFC5826] Brandt, A., Buron, J., and G. Porcu, "Home Automation
          Routing Requirements in Low-Power and Lossy Networks", RFC
          5826, April 2010.

[RFC5867] Martocci, J., Ed., De Mil, P., Riou, N., and W. Vermeylen,
          "Building Automation Routing Requirements in Low-Power and
          Lossy Networks", RFC 5867, June 2010.

Author's Address 🎀

JP. Vasseur
Cisco Systems, Inc.
1414 Massachusetts Avenue
Boxborough, MA  01719
US

EMail: jpv@cisco.com

that's a wrap on RFC 7102!! 🌈💅✨

📦 where this page comes from